Colonials Place Four on All-EAGL First Team; Kistler Named Assistant Coach of the Year

2015 EAGL Co-Assistant Coach of the Year2013 EAGL Assistant Coach of the Year

Barry Kistler is in his 18th season as the assistant gymnastics coach at The George Washington University. He joined head coach Margie Foster-Cunningham's staff in the fall of 1998 after having spent the 1998 gymnastics season as the assistant coach at Seattle Pacific University in Washington.

The Colonials enjoyed their most successful season in program history in 2015. Kistler was named the 2015 Co-East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) Assistant Coach of the Year after helping guide GW won its first-ever EAGL Championship. The Colonials set three new program records for overall team score (196.875), vault (49.50) and floor exercise (49.45), finished with a 22-3-1 record and qualified for NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2002.

Additionally, Kistler played a key role in the development of freshman Cami Drouin-Allaire, who became the program's first-ever All-American when she earned Second Team Vault honors from the the National Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches Association (NACGC/W). Drouin-Allaire also became just the second student-athlete in program history to qualify as an individual for the NCAA Gymnastics Championships.

Also in 2015, the Colonials captured their first-ever outright individual event championships since joining the EAGL. Freshman Jillian Winstanley, the 2015 EAGL Rookie of the Year, captured the uneven bars title at the EAGL Championship with a score of 9.875 while Drouin-Allaire earned the vault championship with a school-record tying 9.95, the third time in 2015 that she achieved that score. Additionally, freshman Sara Mermelstein was the co-champion on floor exercise (9.85).

At the NCAA Auburn Regional, the Colonials had four podium appearances across four events and the all-around, the most by a single team in GW's NCAA Regionals history.

Kistler played a key role in the Colonials setting a pair of program records in 2014. GW set new team records with scores of 49.225 on vault and 49.20 on uneven bars. Additionally, he played vital role in the development of 2014 EAGL Rookie of the Year and EAGL Vault Co-Champion Chelsea Raineri.

Kistler was named the EAGL Assistant Coach of the Year at the conclusion of the 2013 season for playing an integral role in recruiting and elevating the difficulty of the Colonials' uneven bar routines. During his tenure at GW, Kistler has had a hand in leading the Colonials to four A-10 Conference titles and three 20-plus victory seasons.

While at Seattle Pacific, Kistler helped lead the Falcons to a new all-around record of 192.65 and a second-place finish at the USAG Collegiate National Championships (Division II).

Prior to his work at Seattle Pacific, Kistler was the assistant women's coach at Radford University from 1996-97. Kistler helped the Highlanders establish a new team all-around record of 188.1 against the University of Kentucky in 1997. Also that year, the team broke or tied all individual and team records. Kistler's team also enjoyed academic success when it finished ninth for team GPA among all women's gymnastics teams in the country and produced six NCAA Scholastic All-Americans.

As an athlete, Kistler was a member of the Radford University gymnastics team from 1992-1996. He is the school record holder in the all-around, pommel horse and parallel bars, and was team captain in 1996. He graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. Kistler also has coached at the Clemmer's School of Gymnastics in North Carolina, Moonbeam Academy of Gymnastics in Virginia, the Falcon Gymnastics Center in Seattle and the Woodward Gymnastics Camp in Pennsylvania.